SSR Mining Inc.

Q2 2024 Earnings Conference Call

7/31/2024

spk03: into the cause of the Turbler incident continue, and we are cooperating fully with the relevant authorities in Turkiak. We have commissioned independent third parties to review the design, construction, and operation of the heat bleach pad. To date, these reviews have not identified any material nonconformance with the construction or operation of the heat bleach pad relative to third party design parameters. Simultaneously, we continue work closely with all the relevant authorities to advance the permits required to restart the Churpa mine. These include the reinstatement of the Churpa EIA and operating permits. If and when the permits are granted, we would anticipate commencing sulfide plant operations through the processing of existing ore stockpiles on site. These stockpiles contain more than 700,000 ounces of gold. Certainly, there is a lot of work ahead for us at Chepman as we continue to advance the remediation efforts. However, we have made meaningful progress to date and remain fully committed to a restart of the operation once we receive all the necessary permits. And now with that, we'll move on to slide four, where Michael will discuss the second quarter results.
spk02: Thank you, Rod, and good afternoon, everyone. Second quarter 2024 production was 76,000 gold equivalent ounces at all entertaining costs of $2,116 per ounce, which includes cash, care, and maintenance costs in Curtis-Tripler, representing approximately $245 per ounce. For the first half, Marigold, Phoebe, and Puna combined to produce 156,000 gold-equivalent ounces, in line with our continued expectations for a second-half-weighted production profile, and each asset remains well on track for their full-year production and cost guidance. We finished the quarter with a cash position of $358 million, inclusive of the aforementioned $55 million in remediation costs, and another $17 million in cash, care, and maintenance costs at Chirpler. With an undrawn revolving credit facility and an outlook for improved production and free cash flow generation in the second half, we remain in a strong position financially. During the quarter, we continue to advance brownfield exploration programs at Marigold, Phoebe, and Puna, which Bill will discuss later. Additionally, site establishment and engineering activities at Hod Madden continue to progress as we move towards a construction decision for the project. On to slide five for a brief look at the financial results. We recorded attributable net income of $0.05 per share in the second quarter, while adjusted net income per share was $0.04, reflecting the exclusion of the mark-to-market gain on our portfolio of marketable securities. As a reminder, in the first quarter of 2024, we booked a $250 million remediation expense for costs we expect to incur at Turfler, and the impact of this expense was fully reflected in first quarter income statement. Included remediation spend at Turfler, second quarter cash generated by operating activities was negative $78 million, while free cash flow was negative $116 million. As noted, our total cash position remains strong at $358 million. With an additional undrawn revolving credit facility and strong second half free cash flow expected from the other operations, we remain well positioned to manage remediation costs at Chirkler as well as our reinvestment needs across the business. Now on to slide seven where Bill will discuss the operations starting with Marigold.
spk01: Thanks, Michael. Marigold's second quarter production of 26,000 ounces was in line with expectation. The 2024 mine plan called for the second quarter to feature the lowest production and highest costs of the year. Reflecting focus on waste stripping at Red Dot in the first half of 2024 and a catch up in sustaining capital spend to bring us back on track for the year to date spend. With the first half now complete, We expect production and costs to improve meaningfully in the second half of the year, particularly in the fourth quarter. Marigold remains on track for its full-year production and cost guidance. Brownfield growth activity at Buffalo Valley and other near-mine targets advance during the quarter as we look to continue to replace mine depletion and potentially further extend Marigold's operating life. Now on to CB. At CB, second quarter production was 17,000 ounces and an ASIC of 1626 per ounce. Production and costs were in line with expectations as grade mined and processed are expected to average between five and six grams per tonne for the remainder of 2024. CB remains on track for full year guidance. Exploration activity at CB continues to focus on near mine extensions to existing underground mineralisation. as well as the continued advancement of Palki and Palki West targets. The Palki targets represent a potential mine life extension opportunity and the CB team are aggressively advancing technical studies to better delineate the opportunity. Now on to Boona. Boona produced 2.7 million ounces of silver in the second quarter, a strong bounce back from softer production in the first quarter due to heavy rains. ASIC of $15.19 per ounce in the second quarter demonstrated Puna's significant free cash flow margins in the current silver price environment. With first half production of 4.6 million ounces of silver and an ASIC of $15.36 per ounce, Puna remains well on track for full year guidance. In addition, exploration and technical work continues to evaluate opportunities to extend operations at Puna. through potential extensions of Chinchillas and continued advancement of the Cordovares target through near Mine Drill. Now we'll turn back to Rod for closing remarks.
spk03: Thanks Bill and Michael. As you can see, our second quarter results were well aligned to our expectations, with Marigold, Seabee and Poona all on track to meet 4U guidance. We will continue to diligently advance remediation efforts at Chirklow and remain fully committed to returning to operations in Turkey. So with that, I will turn the call over to the operator for any questions you may have.
spk00: Thank you, Mr. Antal. We will now begin the question and answer session. To join the question queue, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. You will hear a tone acknowledging your request If you're using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing any keys. To withdraw your question, please press star, then two. The first question comes from Lawson Rinder with Bank of America. Please go ahead.
spk04: Thanks, operator, and hello, Rod and T. Thanks for the update, and my condolences to your colleagues and their families. I just wanted to ask about a statement in the release where you said that you're not able to estimate when and under what conditions the mine will resume at Chirkler and implied in that is that the mine will restart. Have you received indications from Turkish authorities suggesting that the mine will start at some unknown time and under some unknown conditions?
spk03: Yeah, as you can appreciate, I mean, the focus for us has been on the priorities as I outlined and, you know, moving diligently through each one of those sequences is really important to put us in the right environment for us to gain those approvals for restarts. So those discussions are underway. Obviously, I'm not going to provide too much more colour or comment on those, but we are actively discussing the work-forward plan as we move through each one of those stages.
spk04: Okay. All right. Well, thanks. That's helpful, Rod. And then could I also ask about some of the exploration you guys have touched on in your presentation and in the results? When you look to year end, so two questions on the reserve update. With the existing operations, do you anticipate replacing reserves? based on drilling to date, and do you anticipate any change to the gold price assumption on which those reserves are based?
spk03: As you remember last year, Lawson, we actually did a pretty big comprehensive update to all of our technical reports, and I think it was sort of lost earlier this year with obviously the Chirple incident, and that was a comprehensive refresh. across each one of the operations. The exploration this year is obviously targeted on those targets to particularly at both Puna and Seabee to extend mine life, but that work program is still active, so it's a bit early to tell exactly what the results will be, or indeed the actual timing of those results to do any more updates to what we already did pretty pretty comprehensively during 2023. So that's the work plan at the moment. We'll obviously release exploration results as and when they're available or meaningful exploration results as and when they're available. But the real key priority right now is RCB and Puna.
spk04: And then on the gold price assumption, is there any intention to change that for the year-end reserve statements or just keep that in line with the technical reports?
spk03: Look, we haven't even got to that yet. We won't even assess the gold price until the end of the year. But I think from memory, when we did the tech reports for this year, early this year, we were well in line with what our peer group was doing.
spk04: Okay, thank you.
spk00: This concludes the question and answer session.
spk03: Right. Appreciate it. Thank you, operator, and thank you, Paul, for joining us today, and we'll talk again here soon. Thank you.
spk00: This brings to a close today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating, and have a pleasant day.
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